Telephone lines, which are carried by electrical conductors known as tip ring wire pairs, are generally aggregated at a particular point in a building prior to being distributed and connected to various types of telephone equipment, such as, for example, telephones, fax machines, modems etc. As the tip ring pairs generally enter the building as part of a multi-conductor cable, the individual tip ring wire pairs must first be broken out from the cable into individual wire pairs. This is normally accomplished in a junction box known as, for example, a building entrance protector (BEP), or network interface unit (NIU). Within such devices the individual telephone line tip ring pairs are separated from the cable, individually connected to a connector block, and made available for further electrical connection and distribution. Usually there is a protector device inserted between the telephone and central office, or network side of the telephone line and the customer equipment or terminal side of the telephone line to protect the telephone and user, or other equipment connected to the telephone line, from hazardous overvoltages induced in the telephone network or in the cables passing between the telephone central office and the building within which the line is terminated.
In a typical arrangement, the telephone lines coming from the network are first wired to a protector field, which is an array of connectors for receiving the protector device, which is in turn hard wired to a first connector block which provides a first test point for testing the telephone line connections between the building and telephone central office. This first terminal block is hard wired to a multi pair connector, most typically a twenty-five pair connector of the RJ21 type, for further connection to an array of customer bridges which are also hard wired and connectorized via a mating RJ21 connector. The use of a customer bridge permits a subscriber to disconnect terminal equipment from a telephone line so that subscriber can isolate troubles on the line as originating in the telephone network, or on the terminal equipment side of the telephone line. An example of such an arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,440, dated Nov. 8, 1994, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,440, depicts a multi-layered network interface unit which results in size economies due to the fact that the customer bridge connector block is hingeably connected to the telephone network protector array field so that rather than placing these two arrays side by side they can be mounted in overlying relationship, resulting in a saving of space.
Additionally, there are known insulation displacement connector (IDC) blocks for use in such junction boxes and/or distribution fields, such as the ubiquitous punch down connector block, also known as a 66-type connector block, and the tool-less insulation displacement connector blocks utilizing push cap connectors, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,659 dated Apr. 3, 1990, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Such a connector block is commercially available under the product designation SC99 from Lucent Technologies Inc.
These known terminal blocks consist of an IDC type connector on one side of the connector block, and a matching, electrically connected wire wrap terminal on the other side, such that a wire connected on the wire wrap side may be connected to another wire on the IDC side of the block. Because wire wrap terminals are difficult to form connections on, and since once connected they are difficult and time consuming to re-wire, flexible, rapid connections and re-connections of wires on wire wrap terminals cannot be achieved. It is for this reason, among others, that the wire wrap side of such blocks are connectorized, frequently with RJ21 type connectors, and once wired not changed. This greatly diminishes the flexibility and ease of use of such connector blocks.